SPEC School Gardens Program

Bees exploring a squash blossom. Those vibrant colours!

One of the best things about working with kids is watching them try new things. Especially healthy, new foods from the garden. Maybe their willingness to try new foods from the garden is so big because of the excitement of harvesting your own food. The joy and surprise when a child pulls a beet from the ground and yells "Look at this! It looks like a giant spider" is so great to watch. As we were thinning out the beet crop the other day, one of the kids asked what a beet tasted like; he had never tasted one before. I was shocked and amazed to find out that many of the other surrounding kids had also never tasted a beet. Without missing a beat (no pun intended) the kids asked if they could try tasting the raw beets. I warned them that raw beets had a pretty strong and earthy flavour and that they may not like them on their first try. Fortunately, they still went on to taste them, and surprisingly many of them really loved them. They loved the way it made their mouths bright re

This week, this kids learned about pineapple weed! It's a wild, edible plant that can be found all around Vancouver; even growing from a crack in the pavement. It has a sweet and fruity smell and taste, and can be used fresh in salads or can be dried to make tea. The kids were so shocked that this sweet smelling weed was growing all around them and they had no idea! Learning about Pineapple weed  Look at that harvest!

After a week of pulling up dead plants, making space for new growth and planting many seeds, the exciting part has arrived: watching the seeds sprout and poke through the soil. The kids are starting to get really excited about the growing progress. Before I even have a chance to put down my bag I have already been passionately told about the sprouting radishes and pac choi. Radishes starting to grow at Thunderbird Elementary! Making sure those new radishes have plenty of sunshine and water  At Thunderbird Elementary we are painting the garden beds with Linseed oil (a natural varnish made from flaxseed oil)  to help prolong the life of the wood make it more water resistant. Of course the kids were also very eager to help out with this process. I have very high hopes for the future of this garden.  Painting with Linseed oil to help protect the garden beds My devoted helpers

To make room for new seeds, I harvested the Kale from a plot at Thunderbird Elementary. It was not full size, and was slightly withered from being under-watered throughout the hot and dry June. Instead of being disappointed in the crop, I took it as a perfect opportunity to make kale chips. Heaps of harvested Kale I gave the leaves a good soaking, and removed as much of the stems as I could. I then tossed them in a bowl with olive oil, lemon, garlic powder,  onion powder and a little bit of salt. Its a good idea to under-season instead of over-season because the flavours become concentrated when baked or dehydrated.  I then put all of the seasoned Kale leaves into my dehydrator, and left them there for 5 hours. Don't worry if you don't have a dehydrator, as an oven will also do the trick!  Washed, seasoned and ready to be dehydrated I brought the chips to the kids at Thunderbird the next day. I was a little bit nervous as to how they would react to the

The abnormally hot and dry Summer Vancouver has been experiencing so far, has left the gardens needing some serious TLC. After what seemed like only a few minutes following a good, deep watering I could see the veggies start to perk up again. The kids and I got straight to work by watering, weeding, and harvesting overgrown plants. Within a few hours we had cleared plots, applied organic fertilizer and planted our favourite veggies. At Thunderbird Elementary we planted brussel sprouts because the majority of kids had never tasted them before.  Some dry and overgrown plots at Thunderbird Elementary My team, helping water and weed at Thunderbird

Hello SPEC followers, environmentalists, gardening enthusiasts and anyone else who is reading this blog! My name is Emily, and I am the School Gardens Program intern for the Summer. I am in charge of maintaining the gardens at SPEC's partnership schools as well as leading elementary school children in fun garden and nature-themed activities. My goal is to involve the children in every level of the gardening process, including weeding, watering, planting, harvesting, and of course eating :) I will use this blog as a place to document our progress as the summer passes; of course also including silly kid stories and the occasional recipe. I also set up an Instagram account  to document our daily progress, so make sure you check it out! The first harvest of the Summer!

This month, the grade 6 students at Queen Elizabeth Elementary School (QE) went over to Queen Elizabeth Annex (QEA) to share some seeds and skills with the grade 2 students.  A parent from partnering school, General Gordon Elementary School, joined us on this mission. QE grade 6 students brought over some leeks seeds saved from their school garden to share with the QEA grade 2 students.  They showed the grade 2 students how to separate the seeds from the plant and get it ready for planting. Then they helped the grade 2 students plant the leek seeds in the QEA school garden. Then it was time to plant beans.  The grade 6 students laid down some yarn so that the grade 2s would know where to plant their bean seeds. The beans were planted... ...and watered. Thank you QE grade 6 students for sharing your skills! A special thank you to Think&EatGreen@School for supporting this collaboration between QE, QEA, and General Gordon.